Are You Intentionally Overfilling to Avoid a Compliance Risk?

Today’s food and beverage manufacturers are challenged to achieve tight net content control. Underfill your product weight, volume or count, and you violate such regulations as the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act (FPLA).

StarKist Co., makers of StarKist®-brand shelf-stable seafood products, was sued for underfilling some of its five-ounce canned tuna products by as little as 0.03 ounces, which was in violation of state and federal law.

However, if you overfill to avoid noncompliance and lawsuits, you not only waste raw materials, but also lose thousands — if not millions — of dollars in profit.

Yet, a wide range of issues can interfere with achieving tight net content control. These issues can stem from normal wear and tear of your production machinery to fluctuations in the raw materials used to make your products and beyond.

As a quality control manager, how do you find a balance between underfilling and overfilling to drive profitability while managing compliance? How do you simultaneously optimize your food and beverage manufacturing processes to help ensure product safety, quality and satisfaction among consumers — all while upholding your company’s valuable reputation?

Strike a Balance Between Profitability and Compliance

The answer is DataMetrics. With the solution in place, you benefit from a unique set of features to optimize your production line to net content and weight requirements.

Ensure compliance while maximizing revenue potential.

DataMetrics gives you access to fill weights, levels and counts in near real time. This information allows you to track, analyze, identify and report on mission-critical processing data you can use to resolve issues as they happen.

Reduce scrap and rework with near real-time notification.

DataMetrics real-time event monitoring and notification ensures that everyone who needs to know about production issues, lot status and more is made aware of problems as they occur. This instantaneous communication, powered by configurable alarms, puts the brakes on product problems and reduces scrap and rework.

Control costs through broad connectivity.

Get the most return out of your current investments. DataMetrics connects to more devices and systems than any other SPC program, including checkweighers, Solartron digital gages and GageWay wireless systems, as well as more than 70 device drivers. This means you can use your existing gaging and related software programs and minimize your investment in new equipment, software and training.

Additional DataMetrics features:

Lot release support criteria, including release, hold and released-from production

Robust 24x7 data collection with local caching guarantees uninterrupted production — even with network and other system failures

An enterprise relational database system to manage data in a common, centralized storage area

Use DataMetrics as a standalone solution, or fully integrate it with others from ASI DATAMYTE to achieve continuous quality throughout your entire food and beverage manufacturing process. DataMetrics enables you to maintain stable fill, reduce waste and keep net content under tight control — all while reducing or eliminating manual data collection that can lead to risky — and potentially costly — human error. You gain the insights you need to improve your processes, consumer satisfaction, compliance and bottom line. You’ll also find it can scale to meet your global food and beverage manufacturing needs now and as they evolve for years to come.

We want to hear how you’re dealing with food and beverage manufacturing challenges. To talk to an expert about reducing your overfill expense, contact us at 1-800-455-4359. Learn more about DataMetrics software.